Marc Jeske
I am an only child, born in 1952. My mom and dad have both passed. I grew up in downstate Illinois and went to college in Champaign, majoring in Philosophy with a minor in Religious Studies. I went to law school in Chicago and took a job as in-house counsel for a rail company. I met my wonderful wife, Laura, there. I later went to work in-house for a steel company called ArcelorMittal (it was aggregation of Bethlehem, Inland and a few other companies and is now owned by Cleveland Cliffs)
I worked for 38 years, mostly in the Chicago Loop and did many kinds of law, with a focus on contracts. We lived in and around Chicago in several places, but spent most of our time in Wheaton Illinois and later Valparaiso Indiana. We adopted as newborns two amazing daughters, Sarah, now 30 and Alyssa, 28. Sarah is still in Valpo studying to be a massage therapist and Alyssa lives with us in New Port Richey and is studying to become a boat captain.
I retired five years ago. We have a large yard and my joy has been planting and tending all kinds of things from bamboo, to palms, to fruit trees, to wildflowers. We have eight chickens, three bee hives, two dogs, a Macaw and the worlds oldest Cocatiel. Our passion is traveling, meeting people in new cultures, taking cooking lessons, learning about history and beliefs and enjoying new experiences. We've been to 23 countries as a family and quite a few more on independent trips.
Karen J. Noffsinger
B.A. – Economics, University of North Carolina, Asheville
M.A. – World History, Norwich University, VT
State of Florida License - Teacher
State of Florida License – Real Estate Broker
Bio:
The minute I stepped foot onto our previous Pine Hill Road campus, I immediately knew that this was my spiritual home. I emersed myself in Unity teachings and started my path towards membership in 2012. Within a short time, I started our once-a-month drum circle, brought the Kadampa Buddhist Group to utilize our part of our space, and then took over the Prayer, Meditation, and Healing Services. During that tenure, our early morning services grew from an average of five participants to 30.
As I grew spiritually, I was invited to serve on the Board of Trustees. I was honored to accept that invitation and gratefully served for several years up until 2022 when my term expired. I took the required year off from leadership duties and am looking forward to supporting our new minister as we nurture and grow our spiritual community.
